Theodora Roosevelt Clarke (born 4 August 1985) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

since the 2019 general election. Prior to her political career, she worked in the arts industry and founded the campaign group Coalition for Global Prosperity.

Early life and career

Clarke grew up in the village of Bibury in Gloucestershire. She is the daughter of Sir Charles Mansfield Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet and his second wife Teresa de Chair, a daughter of

Somerset de Chair Somerset Struben de Chair (22 August 1911 – 5 January 1995) was an English author, politician, and poet. He edited several volumes of the memoirs of Napoleon. Early and personal life De Chair was the younger son of Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson ...

. Her younger brother is former athlete Sir Lawrence Clarke, 7th Baronet. Clarke also has a younger sister, Augusta. She is the niece of the wife of the former Business Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg. Clarke is a distant relative of US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was privately educated at Downe House School in Newbury,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. She studied art history at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

and the Courtauld Institute of Art, specialising in Russian Art. Clarke worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the British auction house

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

before founding ''Russian Art and Culture'', an online arts magazine in 2011. She was also a co-founder of the Association of Women in the Arts, and later founded the Coalition for Global Prosperity. As part of her work at the campaign group she volunteered in Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the

Ebola outbreak This list of Ebola outbreaks records the known occurrences of Ebola virus disease, a highly infectious and acutely lethal viral disease that has afflicted humans and animals primarily in equatorial Africa. The pathogens responsible for the di ...

Parliamentary career

Clarke contested the Bristol East seat at the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and 2017 general elections as the Conservative Party candidate but was unsuccessful. The party selected her as the candidate for

on 26 September 2019. The incumbent Conservative MP

Jeremy Lefroy Jeremy John Elton Lefroy (born 30 May 1959) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the Stafford constituency in the 2010 general election and was re-elected in 2015 and 2017 before st ...

had previously announced that he would be standing down at the next election. She was elected as Stafford's MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 14,377 (28.1%), the largest in the constituency's history. Clarke has been a member of the International Development Committee since March 2020 and the Women and Equalities Committee since September 2020. On 5 October 2020, Clarke was appointed as the Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Kenya. She helped implement the UK-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement which continued the duty-free access to the UK market for Kenyan businesses after Brexit. The agreement carried forward arrangements agreed by the European Union and the East African Community. Clarke resigned this role in July 2022 in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership. Clarke endorsed Penny Mordaunt during the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. Clarke is taking six months maternity leave following the birth of her first child in August 2022.

Personal life

Clarke married Henry Coram-James, son of John Coram James and The Countess of Harrowby (formerly Caroline Coram James) and stepson of the

Earl of Harrowby Earl of Harrowby, in the County of Lincoln, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1809 for the prominent politician and former Foreign Secretary, Dudley Ryder, 2nd Baron Harrowby. He was made Viscount Sandon, of San ...

, on 14 August 2021 at the Church of St Mary, Bibury. In March 2022, she announced that the couple were expecting their first child. Their daughter was born in August 2022.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Theo Living people UK MPs 2019–present Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Daughters of baronets 21st-century British women politicians Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Stafford 1985 births 21st-century English women 21st-century English people